The House by the Hill
Being a freshly married man, my wife and I quickly jumped at the offer to buy this old-fashioned house that was built just next to an overgrown forest, not far from a village. The prices were pretty low, the locals were nice, and most importantly, I could keep working on the designing project I was tasked with at work. After a few days of packing and organizing out stuff, we loaded everything to our car and drove off according to the instructions given to us by the salesman who sold us the house. The house was indeed beautiful as promised, and it was well taken cared of by its previous owners. "Honey," I said to my wife, "I'm going to the village to see if they have some groceries we're missing. Think you'll be fine on your own till I get back?" "I'll be fine, James. Though I'll need your help soon enough with moving the heavier objects, so don't come back too late." I nodded my head and kissed her goodbye, and soon enough drove towards the local village. The people were nice as we both remembered, and I even befriended one of the local convenience store clerks after having a short conversation about our favorite soccer team. However, we soon enough began to talk about my reasons of being in the village. "So, you two are new here?" he said while checking on the items I purchased. "Yeah– we bought the house by the woods. Price seemed too low to pass on, and Marry loves the forest. She's an artist and all, gives her inspiration." At this point, the clerk narrowed his eyes a little bit, placed my items aside and beckoned me closer. He lowered his voice to a whisper, even though I was the only one in the store at the given time. "Whatever happens, friend, don't walk to the house by the hills. Understand that? Promise to me, that no matter what happens– never walk to the house by the hills." His reaction puzzled me, and I soon asked him for the reason he was giving me this warning. "What do you mean? What’s in the house?" "I don't know. I mean... I'm not supposed to tell you. Just don't go there. And don't tell anyone I told you about this, alright?" At this point, he returned to his position and finished checking on the last of my items. I didn't know what to make of his reaction, so I simply guessed he was either pulling a prank on me, or that he tried to drive me out of the house I purchased. I mean it was extremely cheap, well maintained and beautiful. We bid each other farewell, though his terror-filled eyes and words never left me from the moment I exited the store. When I came back home evening had already struck, and so my wife and I decided it would be best to have a small dinner and go to bed instead of forcing ourselves with more unpacking. That night my sleep wasn't easy. I recall waking up several times, each time to the same startling, violent dream. For some reason, I always found myself standing at the hills that surrounded our house, and after a short walk, found a rotting cabin in the middle of the forest. Just when I was about to open it, I woke up due to a sharp scream that came from within. This time I couldn't go to sleep. I looked at the clock and it stated that the hour was 4AM. Deciding to see if there was light outside, I looked towards the window. Though what I saw made me skip a beat– this pale, nearly eyeless face looked at me back from the outside. Its mouth was stretched to make out a grotesque smile, and its eyes were focused at my own. I screamed from the top of my lungs– and the visage simply drifted back into the night, leaving me confused and startled. My wife woke up and looked at me angrily, as if expecting to hear a damn good excuse for me waking her up at 4AM. "Some one was looking at us from outside the window." "...What? What do you mean someone? Like, a thief?" "I don't know. He was pale...Nearly inhuman. And he was smiling, like he knew something was going on, maybe its one of the locals?" "I don't know, James... maybe you had a bad dream?" she said, though I simply couldn't believe it. "Stay here," I said and got up from bed, "I'm going to see if any thing was stolen." I didn't want to admit it, but I was quite startled. After going through our stuff, I noticed that nothing was damaged or stolen, besides our cellphones. "Shit..." I said and hurried back, though I couldn't find my wife anywhere. I panicked and started calling for her "Marry? Marry! Answer me!" Though no answer came. But some movement caught my attention, and I dreadfully looked at the window. There he was– the face. His smirk has grown from the last time I saw him, and this time his lips weren't pale. They were blood red. His eyes had a human emotion to them– lust. He looked at me with startling satisfaction, his smile not diminishing for a moment. "Where is my wife?! Where's Marry?! Who the fuck are you?!" I shouted, though he wouldn't answer. And just like before he began walking back into the darkness that dominated the garden, and soon vanished from sight. I rushed outside after him, though I couldn't see him any where. And then I saw it. Big, red letters dripping on the front wall of the house, reading: "Go to the house by the hill" A feeling of dread started filling me. I rushed out to the car and started it up, driving as fast as I could towards the hill. It wasn't long enough till I found out that the overgrown forest wouldn't allow me to enter with my car, so I simply ditched it and kept on running up the hill, making my way in the pitch-black forest, sometimes bumping into roots, rocks, or other objects I couldn't identify. It took me roughly an hour to finally reach the top of the hill– and there I saw it. A rotting, wooden cabin that was built right around the top of the hill. I quietly approached it, and light was beginning to finally pour from the sky and light my way. Though the constant sound of buzzing disturbed the eerie silence that ruled the atmosphere around the cabin, and it came from behind it. I quickly regretted seeing it. On the ground, a human-like, deformed baby lay lifeless. Its eyes have been clawed out, with obvious bloodied clawing marks scarring the cheeks. While one eye was half-eaten, the other was still looking up at me. The mouth was twisted in a silent scream of pain, and the tongue was either yanked or cut out, causing a lot of the now dry blood to rust around the infant's mouth. Its stomach was cut into two, and most of its intestines were spilled out, rotting outside of its body. The entire corpse was covered with flies, that quickly spread out when I came near it. I stood there, unable to move as some of the flies landed on me. It took me a minute or two to finally come back to my senses and shake the flies off me. If that maniac is going to do the same to Marry, I had to stop him! I rushed into the cabin, only to discover it was mainly empty. The rotting wooden walls only held few, heavily rotting furniture within. A pair of chairs and a table, though in the middle of it were stairs leading deeper into the earth. It was far too dark to try and determine if there was anything at the bottom, and so with sheer dread I decided I had to go on... for Marry. There was an eerie silence in the cabin, though as I came closer to the stairs it was quickly interrupted by a series of clawing noises, followed by a blood-chilling cry. I temporarily froze in my place, listening, breathing heavily as my heart nearly exploded from the pressure. The clawing continued, followed by more sobbing, and a scream. "...Marry!" I said and rushed down the stairs, only to find them to lead into a rotting wooden door. I opened it and quickly entered the slightly lit up room. Inside, dozen of white, skeletal like corpses were all piled unto one another. Each in the same state of the corpse I found outside of the house. They had their mouth opened in a silent scream, their eyeless face looking up at the ceiling, with their intestines poured and clawed out. I only then realized that I wasn't the only living man in the room, and that behind the corpses was a seated figure, looking at me eerily. It didn't blink, and its red lips were stretched into a grotesque wide smile. He didn't say any thing– he just smiled. Though I could feel how the madness and deformity were escaping through his eyeless face, and that the blood that poured out of his missing eyes was now black. Neither of us moved or spoke. I was frozen, the feeling of dread keeping me in place. Though after a minute or two I mustered my courage: "Where is Marry? What have you done to her?" I didn't care about the others. I just wanted to find Marry and get out of this wretched place, to forget what I saw. But the seated man never spoke back. He gestured to his right, towards one of the walls, where I finally saw her. She was nailed to one of the walls, both arms cut off from her body and nailed to the walls. Her mouth was wide open, and nails were hammered into both the back of her mouth and her eyes to secure her into the wall behind her. Her legs were both spread as far as physically possible from her body, and her nude figure made it clear that she was raped before she was killed. I just couldn't move. I felt how the bile was rising inside of me, and I fell down, puking. I crawled towards her, coughing and tearing. Her breasts were both bitten off, and it was clear she suffered before she died. Her tongue was missing, just like the infant. The seated figure finally came up from its chair, and now made its way towards me. I crawled away, leaning against the wall, allowing the blood of my wife to drip over me as the eyeless man came closer. I tried to defend myself, I tried to shut my eyes– but I just couldn't. He knelled by my side, and slowly petted my cheeks. I wanted to scream, but his bony finger just hushed my lips. He then sent both of his arms towards my neck, crushing it, choking me. I tried to struggle but I just couldn't– he was far too strong, and I was far too weak. I looked at my wife for one last time before I joined those who decorated the house in the hill. Category:Places